The traditional title for the pericope from Luke 19 is the Parable of the Pounds. That reading is superficially similar to the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30), which teaches the imperative of diligence in the work of God. In the case of Luke 19:11-27, however, the real point is quite different.

Textual context matters. Immediately prior to the parable we read of our Lord and Savior’s encounter with Zacchaeus, a man who worked as a tax collector for the Roman Empire. He was a literal tax thief, although, as we read, he changed his ways and made more restitution than the Law of Moses required. Immediately after the parable Jesus enters Jerusalem at the beginning of that fateful Holy Week. The story of Zacchaeus explains verse 11a (“As they were listening to this”); the context of the impending Triumphal Entry is crucial to understanding the pericope which Volume IX (1995) of The New Interpreter’s Bible calls “The Parable of the Greedy and Vengeful King.”

The nobleman in the parable resembles members of the Herodian Dynasty, especially Archelaus (reigned 4 B.C.E.-6 C.E.), son of Herod the Great (reigned 47-4 B.C.E.), Governor of Galilee then the client king of the Jews. Herod the Great, who traveled to Rome to seek the title of king, reigned as one because the Roman Republic then Empire granted him that title. He was also a cruel man. Biblical and extra-Biblical sources agree on this point, constituting a collection of stories of his tyranny and cruelty. In Matthew 2 he ordered the Massacre of the Innocents, for example. Archelaus, a son of Herod the Great, ruled as the Roman-appointed ethnarch of Idumea, Judea, and Samaria, after traveling to Rome. Archelaus sought the title of King, which the Emperor Augustus denied him after meeting with a delegation of Jews. Archelaus, mentioned by name in Matthew 2:22, was also cruel and tyrannical, victimizing Jews and Samaritans alike. On one day alone he ordered the massacre of 3000 people at the Temple precinct in Jerusalem. Eventually Augustus deposed him. Herod Antipas, full brother of Archelaus, ruled on behalf of the Roman Empire as the tetrarch of Galilee and Perea from 4 B.C.E. to 39 C.E., when he sought the title of King and found himself banished to Gaul instead. Antipas, a chip off the old block, ordered the execution of St. John the Baptist (Matthew 14:3-10) and sought to kill Jesus, who called the tetrarch “that fox” (Luke 13:32).

A trope in the interpretation of parables of Jesus is that one of the characters represents God. That does not apply accurately to the parable in Luke 19:11-27. In fact, the unnamed nobleman, who orders the execution of his political opponents, is an antitype of Jesus, who enters Jerusalem triumphantly in the next pericope and dies on the cross a few days later, at the hands of Roman officials. The Kingdom of God is quite different from the Roman Empire, built on violence and exploitation. The kingship of Jesus is quite different from the model that the Roman Empire offers.

Amos 5 condemns those in the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah who profess to follow Yahweh, yet oppose the establishment of justice, especially for the needy. There is nothing wrong with religious rituals themselves, but engaging in them while perpetuating injustice makes a mockery of them. God is unimpressed, we read.

God, in Psalm 50, addresses those who recite divine statutes yet do not keep them, who think wrongly that God is like them. They will not find deliverance in God, we read. That Psalm fits well with Amos 5, of course. Then there are the evildoers who do not even pretend to honor God and do not change their ways. Their path is doomed in the long run also.

One must reject the false dichotomy of deeds versus creeds. In actuality, I argue, deeds reveal creeds. One might detect a dichotomy between deeds and words, but, barring accidents, no dichotomy between deeds and creeds exists.

What do your deeds reveal about your creeds, O reader?

KENNETH RANDOLPH TAYLOR

JUNE 1, 2016 COMMON ERA

THE FEAST OF SAMUEL STENNETT, ENGLISH SEVENTH-DAY BAPTIST MINISTER AND HYMN WRITER; AND JOHN HOWARD, ENGLISH HUMANITARIAN

THE FEAST OF SAINT JUSTIN MARTYR, APOLOGIST

THE FEAST OF SAINT PAMPHILUS OF CAESAREA, BIBLE SCHOAR AND TRANSLATOR; AND HIS COMPANIONS, MARTYRS